1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a scanner and a printer, or an apparatus combined with a scanner to provide a scanning function, and particularly to, an apparatus and a method of scanning an image and/or printing the scanned image.
2. Description of the Related Art
According to a conventional scanning/printing method, a user operates a scanning application program in a personal computer (not shown). After a scanner (not shown) is connected to the personal computer, a scanning operation of scanning a document (image or data) is performed, and the scanned document (scanned image or scanned result) is stored in a hard disk (not shown) of the personal computer.
When the document is scanned according to the conventional scanning method, the scanner and the personal computer should be physically connected through a parallel cable or a universal serial bus (USB) cable, and the scanned document should be stored in the hard disk of the personal computer. In a case that a plurality of personal computers are not connected to the scanner through a network, it is impossible to perform the scanning operation in the personal computer which is not connected to the scanner, since the scanning of the document is possible in only the computer connected to the scanner.
Since a user cannot scan the document using the personal computer which is not connected to the scanner, the user should use the computer connected to the scanner to store the scanned document in a storage medium and then connect the storage medium to the personal computer which is not connected to the scanner. Moreover, due to the cables connected between the scanner and the personal computers used to perform the scanning of the document, surroundings are not neat. Furthermore, manufacturing costs increase, and the increased manufacturing costs are shifted to the user.
According to the conventional scanning/printing method, after the scanned document is stored in the storage medium, the user needs to detach the scanner from the computer to connect a printer to the computer in order to print the scanned document stored in the storage medium.
When the parallel or universal serial bus (USB) cable or a USB hub is used as the cable to connect the scanner or the printer to the computer, the user may not have to detach the scanner or the printer from the computer. In this case, the scanned document can be printed through the printer connected to the computer using a printing function of a scanning application program according to the conventional scanning/printing method.
However, in order to perform the scanning/printing of the document, the scanning/printing application program should be operated in the computer for the scanning operation and the printing operation according to the conventional scanning/printing method. Therefore, there are problems in that the document cannot be scanned or printed without operating the computer.